Born of a love of Robert Wyatt and an off-hand idea of collaborating on a version of his song ‘Free Will and Testament’, Wyndow is a new Psych-folk duo featuring flautist and singer-songwriter Laura J Martin and Trembling Bells frontwoman Lavinia Blackwall. Their eponymous album drops on October 8th, which explores themes of being and wanting and the battle between knowledge and knowing. Who am I and do I see myself the way others see me?
The press for the album describes Wyndow as an exploration of the uncertain and the impermanent. According to Martin, they are “tunes for whacked-out worriers lifting weights in the worry gym,” where “feeling uneasy never felt so easy.” Reflections flit between two pendulums as each wrote and recorded remotely and exchanged these dog eared musical postcards to see each others’ responses. Eschewing the “band in a room” aesthetic out of geographical necessity, they focussed on maximising the sonic palette of each song, doing exactly what each piece demanded without thinking about who had to play each instrument.
Today they are releasing ‘All Cameras Gone’, an album standout, described as a paean to the dust and crackles of the analogue age and the shadows of a lonely projectionist leaving the booth and memories for the final time.
The perspective in the accompanying video directed by Sheffield’s Peter Martin (Post Archives – https://postarchives.com/) capture that bygone era as we’re presented with various camera viewfinder perspectives and some great analogue footage. Peter used B-roll from past projects and sourced clips from the camera rolls of friends to make the video, “I was looking for footage that felt like the space inbetween photographs or the moments before the decisive moments of creating an image.” It sounds like a real labour of love and it ties in beautifully with the song. I also have to admit that, as a modern-day analogue shooter, I experienced a fair bit of geeky joy watching it…
We’re looking forward to more from Wyndow.
Saw the landscape
Saw the no return
Watched the film work
Watched the reels burn
All cameras gone
All the lines were wrong
Of shadows
Reigning in between
According to the press, inspiration for the album was also taken from the atmospheres and repetition of ecstatic minimalism and the joyful experimentation of Penguin Cafe Orchestra, songs were built from small fragments and loops, recorded spontaneously and sent to each other across the wires. Recorded and produced in Liverpool with Iwan Morgan (Euros Childs, Gruff Rhys, Cate le Bon) and in Clydebank with multi-instrumentalist Marco Rea (Euros Childs, Alex Rex) new textures with copious analogue synthesis and treated acoustic instruments were mined, even fretless bass was not off-limits.
They have also organised a tour for 2022 which they say will potentially be the first time any of their music/musicians have shared the same room. See the beautiful tour poster below by Jess Swainson.
Wyndow is due to be released on October 8th on vinyl, CD and digital via Summer Critics.
Get the single via Bandcamp: https://wyndow.bandcamp.com/track/all-cameras-gone
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